Company History

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Company Founder
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

Breaking the Paradigm

IKARUS Software had already existed a few years before the virus utilities came out. The product name was a deliberate choice. When hearing it, most people think of Icarus, the character from Greek mythology who fell to death. However, more important is what he had done before: Try to break the paradigm. Try to fly! This was exactly what we wanted to do with IKARUS—creating new things instead of doing business as usual.

Two Main Pillars Right from the Start

IKARUS started out resting on two main pillars. The first one was developing custom software for SMB. (In fact, we used to do this then but it was far from being profitable.) We used PCs running MS-DOS 2.11 for programming in compiled BASIC and COBOL. The other area we were involved in was standard products. Our range included a design tool for COBOL programmers that was recommended by Microsoft. For a while, Microsoft had been thinking about buying our solution but then they dissolved their own COBOL team and acquired a COBOL compiler. Unfortunately, a similar tool already existed for that compiler. What a pity!

Time is Money

The First Computer Virus

IKARUS virus.utilities

Growth

 

CEO Josef Pichlmayr

Facts and Milestones